Latest update February 4th, 2025 9:06 AM
Involvement in debates helps to sharpen research skills – Deputy Educ. Chief
The ability to examine every side of important and controversial issues in an atmosphere of reasoned arguments and respectful discourse cannot be underestimated and must therefore be embraced as a relevant part of any teaching curriculum. This notion was expressed on Tuesday by Deputy Chief Education Officer, Mrs Bibi Alli, as she addressed the audience at the finals of the JOF Haynes debating competition at the National Cultural Centre.
Deputy Chief Education Officer, Mrs Bibi Alli
According to her, students’ involvement in debates requires that they develop skills to think rigorously and critically. She alluded to a number of studies which have shown that participation in debates increase the critical thinking level of students.
Additionally, she said that debate participation promotes problem-solving and innovative thinking and helps students to build links between words and ideas which make concepts more meaningful.
“Many times we have ideas, but because we don’t think enough about these ideas we cannot put them into practice or we cannot agitate discourse. We cannot convince people about them, but when we debate we have to think so much about these ideas that we can actually do something about them,” Alli surmised.
As part of her efforts to amplify the importance of debating activities, the senior Education official underscored that debates offer many opportunities to students, among them, the development of research skills. She explained that it is important for students to develop such skills if they are to eventually become independent learners.
“We don’t want them to only depend on teachers to feed them with information; they must be able to go to the internet and access information, read books and find information from other sources and I think debating provides this opportunity for our students.”
Given the impact that debating competitions can have on a student’s life, Alli noted that the Education Ministry is poised to continue the promotion and hosting of undertakings such as the JOF Haynes memorial debating competition which has been in existence for just about three decades.
“I generally find that students who do lots of research are able to present very sound arguments and one of the things that we look for is evidence. When we say things we have to provide evidence and research helps us to find the evidence,” Alli asserted.
It is for this reason, she noted, that there is a need for teachers to encourage their students to be involved in debating activities, and by extension, foster the desire to better the practice of researching.
According to her, many students are often intimidated by such activities thus the onus is on teachers to put in the extra work to make it appealing to their students.
“To all the teachers who are tirelessly working with their students to prepare them for debates, I congratulate you, and encourage you to continue the good work,” said Alli.
In addition to research skills, among the benefits that can be accrued from participating in debates are the ability to read well and be articulate in presentations; techniques that cannot be taken away, the Deputy Education Chief emphasised as she insisted that “this should be a driving force to continue to study and participate in debates.”
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